#dark!klaus

She worries her fangs against her lower lip, parched throat aching as she forces down a swallow. She struggles against the shackles trapping her to the chair. Her skin is raw and tender where the sturdy iron binds her wrists. Being stuck in this same position for so long means not even the comfortable chair or her vampiric constitution can save her from the soreness. But she's not injured. Dirty, maybe, hungry to the point of delirium, her insides ablaze with the need, but not hurt. Not physically, anyway.

Her eyes adjust quickly to the darkness, and then the source of the blood reveals itself. Three bodies lie on the ground, one of them twisted inhumanly, all three in pools of dark blood. She recognizes two of them: the big bald guy and the dark-haired woman who had been her constant companions for the last so many days - weeks, maybe, she doesn't know how long it's been, time dragging on painfully slowly down here -, assigned to standing guard in her cell and almost as annoyed by their task as she is for being there.

Apparently, they were stupid enough to make their displeasure known.

"Welcome back, love."

Caroline stiffens at the sound of his voice, rumbling loudly against the rough stony walls of the dungeon and settling deep within her chest with an eerie coolness. She sits up straight as he walks around her, finally coming into view. She can't quite hold the gasp when she sees all the blood. On his hair, his face, his clothes... Klaus never bothers with evidence.

He stops in front of her, unreadable eyes searching her body, head to toe, and then holding her gaze for an uncomfortable long time. "How do you feel?"

"I..." she stutters, unsure of what to say. There's a blank space in her memory. She takes in the scene before her, her own unconsciousness in the middle of a massacre, and a line forms between her eyebrows. "What happened here?"

Klaus' expression darkens further, lips furrowing into a scowl. "These ungrateful rats tried to betrayed me. Lucien offered them immunity if they delivered you to him. They took you out with vervain, tried to take off the shackles. Freya's warning system alerted me of their betrayal." He motions easily towards the mess of corpses on the ground, pursing his lips in a matter-of-fact way. "I took care of them."

Caroline shifts in her place. That explains the burning in her veins, then. She thought it was hunger, but it's poison.

"They won't be an issue anymore," Klaus says, his voice softening as he kneels down in front of her, probably noticing the worry on her features, though not all of it is for how close she came to ending up in Lucien's hands. A part of her is more concerned about the consequences of this plot than about the attempted betrayal itself. What this will do to Klaus.

He takes a flask from his jacket, uncorks it and offers it to her, turning it gently against her lips and helping her drink it. Caroline accepts without so much as a thought, for once not bothered at all with where Klaus got the warm blood from. Her entire body relaxes as she feeds, muscles unknotting, the growling inside of her subsiding almost completely for the first time in a very long while. Her thoughts clear in a second; she finally feels a bit more like herself.

Usually, Klaus limits her access to blood, making sure she doesn't starve, feeding her three times a day, but always in small doses. He doesn't want her strong enough to fight. Says she's way too clever. She's so hungry and annoyed most of the time she doesn't even have it in her to be flattered.

This time, however, he lets her drink the whole flask. Caroline shuts her eyes when she's done, relishing the feeling that washes through her.

Klaus pulls a strand of messy hair away from her face, his finger brushing lightly against her cheek. For a moment, she can almost believe everything will be alright. But then she opens her eyes again, looks straight into his, and reality sinks in like an anchor once more.

"Klaus..." she starts in a small, pleading tune.

"Save your breath, love. You're weak." He puts a finger on her lips to keep her quiet when she tries to argue, his thumb caressing her chin. "Do you see why I have to be so careful? Do you see what we're fighting against here? I can't trust anyone, Caroline. Not with you."

She jerks her face away from him, expression clouding into a scowl. "You can trust me."

"I do trust you, love. More than you know."

"Then let me out of here!" she counters with a near-shout, feeling her tramper fraying quickly, as has been the norm these days. "You can't keep me in a vault forever, Klaus. I'm not a thing."

He lets out an impatient sigh, standing to his feet. "I don't intend to keep you here forever, Caroline, as I've explained to you extensively. But I'm not bargaining with your life. Those damned Ancestors will stop at nothing until they've destroyed me, and you are their primary target. Lucien has a bounty on your head. Until we know how to take him down, you're staying put."

Caroline grunts in frustration. Ever since Lucien Castle completed his insane transformation into Super Hybrid and became the Ancestors' champion, Klaus has been unhinged, and it's only gotten worse since. After his first sireling made his intention to kill Caroline as revenge for Aurora known to all, paranoia has been devouring every bit of rationality left in Klaus' being. But it all escalated to dramatically new lows after what happened to Kol. The Ancestors gave a show of strength taking hold of his brother, making him kill Davina.

That sent Klaus free-falling into a spiral of derangement nobody seems able to stop. Not even her.

They were arguing at the study room one minute, the next she was waking up in the dungeons, bound to a chair by shackles spelled to hold a vampire and protected by a number of different enchantments. Nothing Caroline has tried - not even screaming from the top of her lungs - has had any effect. She's completely invisible down here, left to Klaus' maniacal whims and paranoid ideas of safety.

"Klaus," she starts again, trying to reel in the resentment that's been hardening into anger. Yelling at him has been proved fruitless, so she'll try a different avenue. "Look at me. Look at me." She waits until he does, latching her gaze onto his and baring all the angst and the bitterness in her soul to him. Klaus' eyes flash with something akin to shame before his mask of impassiveness slides back down, totally unrepentant. She's always known he's stubborn, unrivaled in his bullheadedness, but this is... Something else. "I know you're worried. I know you're trying to protect me. But this is not the way, Klaus. I'm hurting. You're hurting me," she says, warmth prickling behind her eyes. "I'm withering away in this place. Please. Let me out of here. Let's discuss something else. I will do whatever you want, will stay out of sight, hide under a desk every time someone comes in, but please. Just let me out."

He swallows the space to her with two purposeful strides, placing his hands on each arm of the chair, his face mere inches from hers. Caroline flinches inwardly, but forces herself to remain unmoved, even as her hands ball into nervous fists, making the skin under the shackles scream with burning ache.

For a split-second, she thinks of all the times she woke up with him this close to her in bed, smart blue eyes watching her with sheer adoration, a dimpled smile on his face that spoke of nothing but pure joy. Klaus does not make it easy to love him, but once they settled into an easy rhythm, finding their footing over countless disagreements and moody outbursts, it was bliss as Caroline's ever known. She was happy. Truly happy. And then this happened.

Now, when she looks into his eyes, she finds no trace of the man who loved her with abandon and devotion, no evidence of the softness he seemed to only reserve for her, in the safe haven of their intimate moments. It's all gone, replaced by world-burning dementia.

It makes her wonder if he hasn't been hexed like Kol. If his mind isn't being mauled by dark magic, destroying every bit of clarity he might have in a most trying time. But who is she going to share her suspicions with? Who will listen to her? The only other people who ever come down here are now lying dead at her feet.

"I would rather die than let them have you," he speaks from behind gritted teeth, his voice steady with the force of his resolve. "I will burn this city to the ground, Caroline, before Lucien or any of those miscreant witches touch a hair on your head. I will destroy the Ancestral plane if I have to, chase down every single one of their descendants, obliterate entire covens from the face of earth. I don't care what I have to do. But I will not lose you. Do you understand?"

Her face crumples up as the tears she'd been trying to hold back finally break free. Caroline never could've imagined that it could break her heart to be loved so deeply.

"Klaus..." she whispers.

"Don't cry, my love," he coos, cupping her face with his hand. It's warm and tender and she's so miserable, so desperate to reach him, that she can't help but lean into his touch, even if all she can feel is the stench of death all over him. "It'll be alright. I promise you."

With a swift move, he steps away. "I will have someone come clean this up," he announces. "And then they'll be dealt with accordingly until I can find someone of trust. I need to see to something now, but I will be back later."

With that, he shuts the iron gate behind him, heavy footsteps dwindling away. Soon she's left with nothing but the sound of her own sobs and the twinge in her chest.